


The Thought That Counts

by NecoArc



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gift Giving, Major Spoilers, Mutual Pining, Plot Twists, Shopping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-13 19:56:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10520754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NecoArc/pseuds/NecoArc
Summary: “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”9S and 2B go shopping. 9S really hopes she loves the shirt he chose for her.[[MAJOR SPOILERS PLEASE FINISH THE GAME BEFORE TOUCHING THIS FLUFF]]





	1. It's Not the Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was a phenomena.  
> Though the circled repeated itself  
> This had ████ occurred.  
> Regardless of the circumstances, █████████████████ forget.

  
  
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit…big?’

  
‘It is,’ she replied, ‘but that’s why I like it.’  
  
The thin cloth of the poncho falls idly along her silhouette, creating waves of fabric where proper sleeves should taper. Extending her arms, she admires the half-moon shape the fabric creats in the tripanel mirror of the dressing room hall.  
  
‘There’s nothing efficient about it…’ she muses, watching the top flow as she sways her arms.‘But it is nice.’  
  
9S hums in agreement from the ottoman behind her, enjoying the radiance of 2B’s fascination. It was a rare moment to see her so candidly amused. Come to think of it, the only clothes she’d ever been issued were tailored to fit; every synthetic fiber woven for performance. His were the same, more for durability than combat ease, but they did their job.  
  
Humans are a wonder with how much distinctive personality they put into everything they create.  
  
“Nines, is this considered a t-shirt?” She questions, looking at his reflection behind her through the mirror.  
  
“U-um what?” The nickname catches him off-guard as he nervously scratches behind his ear, trying to recall the initial question, and then an answer. “No, that’s more of a pon…cho.”  
  
He remembers well a couple of sleepless nights, apprehensive of future machine activity. To ease his mind, he would review some of observation databases stored within a shared S: server of compiled findings by other Scanner models. A few Scanners he knew had compiled information on historical human fashion apparel. Ranging from ‘swimsuits’ to ‘gowns’ and ‘sandals’ to ‘sleepwear’, there appeared to be millions of nuances in what humans wore and why they chose to wear them. Above all else, the data showed that of all human clothing, the ’t-shirt’ was the most popular and customizable of all.  
  
After examining every angle of the said poncho, 2B seems satisfied with the top, removing it over her head so that she stands in her standard leotard.  
  
“Er, if you’re still interested in trying things on….I got you something” 9S says as he twisted the strap of the satchel across his back to his front, unzipping it and unfolding the item inside.  
  
“You don’t have to get me a _gift_. I’m fine getting things on my own.”  
  
“ I know, I know! But it’s the feeling behind gifts! Like I sai-“  
  
“What feeling is behind this gift?” She resorts.  
  
9S hesitates, caught off guardby the blunt question. “Well the gift should be able to answer to answer that if I did this right,” he wants to respond, but decides to save himself the embarrassment of going further with the down the conversion. “Emotions are prohibited.” She concludes.  
  
“So you’re not going to accept it.” 9S states flatly.  
  
“No. You’ll be disappointed if I dislike it.”  
  
“I’ll be disappointed if you don’t try it! I think I know you well enough by now to guess at what you might like or dislike.” Sometimes he swears 2B goes out of her way to be unapproachable. 2B Unapproachable. Heh.  
  
Instead of waiting for another excuse, he tosses the shirt to her, watching as she instinctively catches it. With an unreadable expression, she unfurls the shirt. In her usual graceful way, she slips the shirt over her leotard. The material is a seemingly soft and stretchy cotton, the color a grayish black...with white lettering on the front. Glancing at 9S’s face, which beams a mixture of amusement and accomplishment from beneath a black blindfold, she pinches the sides of the shirt and lifts it away from her to properly read the lettering:  
  
— _2B||!2B_  
  
“So what do you think?” 9S chirps, “I though it was fun since it had ‘2B’ written on it. It’s also written in logic programming, so it’d be a clever fit for us androids.”  
  
“2B or not 2B….” She reads slowly.  
  
“Witty right? I believe it’s a reference to a line in a human play. Hamlet? We don’t quite have the full text, but this line was pretty popular amongst humans.” He’d seen the design on an archived drive that once belonged to a fashion company. For a fair price, he was able to get the design replicated by a Resistance android with a penchant for tailoring.  
  
“It…..fits.” She responds, bleakly, much to his chagrin. “It fits very well.”  
  
“But…you don’t like it.” He replies, his tone a bit more crestfallen than he intends.  
  
“No it’s not that.” 2B says. “I just haven’t received a gift before.” She hesitates.  
“I’m…not sure if I’m conveying the appropriate response to this.”  
  
Is she flustered? She has a (not so surprising) talent of being unreadable. Before he can respond, she turns around and views herself in the mirror.  
“The design is specific. Was this tailored….for me?”  
  
How didhe find this shirt again? He can’t remember.  
  
“I….well—“  
  
“It’s…wonderful you thought of something for me.” 2B says quietly. He feels his pulse quicken at the softly spoken words.  
  
“It’s wonderful…that you think of me.” She continues, tightly gripping the bottom of her shirt, her voice louder. Spinning around, she faces him directly. “This shirt. This moment. I love **d** them both Nines.”  
  
His visual sensors jam as his view of 2B and the dressing room blur into pixelated boxes momentarily. He never thought she would say something like this— but why was this affecting him this much?  
  
“I-I guess we should go shopping more often, huh?” He manages to get out, flustered by her forthright confession. Not exactly the couth response he would have liked to say, but better than the stuttered muttering he thought he would only be capable of.  
  
“Even…even after everything….I wish. I wi— sh.”She approaches him slowly, his body getting warmer, his visuals becoming more disjointed.  
  
“2B, I think think something’s off.”  
  
Is what he wants to say. He fells the soft touch of her hand on his cheek—  
And the world goes dark.  
  
_I’m sorry. This is the only happy recollection I can give you._  
_And it’s brief and not even entirely true._  
_I’m sorry Nines._  
_I’m sorry for everything._  
  
He’s consciously aware of his systems crashing and rebooting.  
  
_“Fatal sy…..detec…d.”_  
  
His visuals are black, but he can make out the feedback of Pod 153. At random intervals, he receives the sensation of a damp area and a searing pain that disappears as quickly as it comes.  
  
_“Me….ver…d.”_  
  
He was just thinking of 2B, right?  
  
_“Beg…..em………evac……mem”_  
  
And suddenly, it all fades to white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got really depressing really quick lol.  
> I didn't intend for it to go like this but it did. Sorry.  
> But there's more. There's a 2B perspective coming soon with the true memory. It'll explain a lot more.......  
> Stick around if you're an emotional masochist. Thanks for reading ^^  
> I love comments :)


	2. It Is The Gift

It was a phenomena.  
Though the circled repeated itself,  
This had occurred.  
Regardless of the circumstances, she wouldn’t allow herself to forget.  
  
—  
  
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit…big?’

  
‘It is,’ she replied, ‘but that’s why I like it.’  
  
The thin cloth of the poncho fell idly along her silhouette, creating waves of fabric where proper sleeves should taper. Extending her arms, she admired the half-moon shape the fabric created in the tripanel mirror of the dressing room hall.  
This was an extreme deviation from her regular tasks, but she didn’t refuse it. She had never tried something like this before. There had been a hiatus on their current mission due to unforeseen machine activity in the south. While objectives were being prioritized, herself, 9S, and a handful of other Yorha units in their squadron were in brief respite.The Resistance coalition for the area resided within a large, seven floor former ’shopping mall’ in the middle of the ruins of a former metropolis.

  
The locale was well known for having a massive amount of preserved human relics and thus, was a central place for work on recreating and archiving old human culture. The main machine server for this particular area had been located and destroyed centuries past which kept the attacks at a minimum, but many on guard. The peacefulness of the area only lead to anticipation.

  
As usual, she was highly concerned with how 9S spent his downtime. For the most part, he was engaged with other Scanners, debriefing and discussing thoughts on previously collected data. It was when he began to dig through the network for facts to fuel his debates that she knew history would repeat itself shortly.  
Until then, winning his trust wouldn’t hurt.

  
‘There’s nothing efficient about it…’ she mused, watching the top flow as she swayed her arms.‘But it is nice.’ Indeed, she did enjoy the light breeze that passed through the thin cloth.  
  
9S hummed in agreement from the ottoman behind her.  
  
Humans were a wonder with how much distinctive personality they put into everything they created.  
  
“Nines, is this considered a t-shirt?” She questioned, looking at his reflection behind her through the mirror. The other Scanners called him by such regularly. For her to call him by his model name would have made her appear unnecessarily aloof in this particular case.  
  
“U-um what? No, that’s more of a pon…cho.”  
  
A poncho. Breezy but fun. She imagined in the mountains, a poncho would ripple like the tides against her skin, flowing like a banner in the wind. And possibly into her face if she were to jump from a high location. Regardless, it would be comfortable to fish in.  
  
Catching herself, she frowned. All of this was irrelevant. The downtime was starting to get to her. She began to remove the poncho.  
  
“Er, if you’re going to try on something else…I got you something” 9S said from behind her as he twisted the strap of the satchel across his back to his front, unzipping it and unfolding the item inside.  
  
“You don’t have to get me a _gift_. I’m fine getting things on my own.”  
  
“ I know, I know! But it’s the feeling behind gifts! Like I sai-“  
  
“What feeling is behind this gift?” She retorted.  
  
_Please listen to what I say:_  
  
“Emotions are prohibited.” She concluded.  
  
“So you’re not going to accept it.” 9S stated flatly.  
  
“No. You’ll be disappointed if I dislike it.”  
  
 More than anything, she’d loathe herself if she did. It would be an interference.  
  
“I’ll be disappointed if you don’t try it! I think I know you well enough by now to guess at what you might like or dislike.”  
  
Instead of waiting for another excuse, he tossed the shirt to her, watching as she instinctively caught it. With an unreadable expression, she unfurled the shirt. In her usual graceful way, she lipped the shirt over her leotard. The material was a very soft and stretchy cotton, the color a grayish black with….white lettering on the front. Glancing at 9S’s face, a mixture of amusement and accomplishment,she pinched the sides of the shirt and lifted it away from her so she could properly read the lettering.  
  
_— [2B||!2B]_  
  
“So what do you think?” 9S chirped. “I though it was fun since it had ‘2B’ written on it. It’s also written in logic programming, so it’d be a clever fit for us androids.”  
  
“2B or not 2B….”  
  
“Witty right? I believe it’s a reference to a line in a human play. Hamlet? We don’t quite have the full text, but this line was pretty popular amongst humans.”  
  
“It…fits.” She responded, with more sentiment than she originally intended, “It fits very well.”  
  
“But…you don’t like it.” He replied, crestfallen.  
  
“No it’s not that.” 2B said. “I just haven’t received a gift before.” She hesitated. “I’m…not sure if I’m conveying the appropriate response to this.”  
  
_I want it off._  
  
It was too close to the truth. Was he implying something through this gift? She hadn’t forgotten the previous preemptive strike in the desert shrine.  
  
He didn’t seem to be mocking her. Was she over-thinking?  
  
The soft cotton against her skin began to feel stifling. Subtle hint or not, it was best to keep the tone positive. Now was not the time nor the place where she could take the matter into her own hands.  
  
It pained her to not understand what he was thinking.  
  
She turned away from him, facing the mirror.  
  
“The design is specific. Was this tailored…for me?”  
  
“Well…that’s not a secret I want to share.” He chuckled sheepishly.  
  
_He’s messing with me!_  
  
“It’s…wonderful you thought of something for me.” 2B said quietly.  
“I feel like I should find something for you now…”  
  
“No no no! That’s not how gifts work! I’m not expecting anything back. But if you did find a gift, I would accept it. N-not that I’m saying you should, because you really don’t need to…” He was visibly flustered as he stumbled over his words.  
  
“I don’t think I would have the time or the resources that Scanners have to provide you with a proper gift.” She responded.  
  
“Well a proper gift doesn’t have to…” 9S sighed. “…Battle units sure have it rough.”  
  
“I do best what I’m meant to do.”  
  
“Do you ever wish you were something else though?”  
  
She blanked.What did he mean by this? She was skilled in combat, not wordplay. Letting her guard down, she’d stepped completely out of her own element and right into his. Once she left the facility, she would transfer the conversation data to 042 for analysis. Emotionally, she felt compromised. As if sensing her introspection on the issue, he continued.  
  
“I don’t know, but shopping like this…I wonder how close we are to the actual human experience of it.”  
  
Like clockwork, 2B received the familiar ping of requested contact from her Pod.  
  
“It would seem that 042 is requesting me.” She said quickly. “I’m sorry, but I really should go see what it is. “ She picked up her Yorha issued blouse off a near hanger, folding it over her arm. 9S gave a groan of disappointment.  
  
“Well…this was fun while it lasted.”  
  
“It was. Thank you for inviting me.” She forced a smile. They both moved to leave.  
  
“Oh, and…please, there’s no need to get me a gift back or anything.It’s the thought behind it rather than the gift itself.”  
  
“The thought. I’ll remember.” She replied. “Please— continue to enjoy yourself while you’re here, Nines.”  
  
“You too 2B, enjoy yourself as well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to finish this chapter quicker than expected.  
> I think this is going to just be a three parter, so final chapter soon.  
> I'm not sure if 2B is paranoid or onto something myself!  
> Comments make me smile :D


End file.
